Punishment and Social Structure Rusche and Kirchheimer

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Punishment and Social StructureRusche and
Kirchheimer

• May 16, 2001

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Introduction

• Why are certain methods of punishment adopted or
  rejected in a given social situation?
• Modes of punishment are social phenomenon and are
  affected by economic forces.
• Specific forms of punishment correspond to a
  given stage of economic development.

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Epochs of Punishment

• Penance and Fines
• The primary mode of punishment during the early
  middle ages.
• Corporal and Public Capital Punishment
• The primary mode of punishment during the later
  middle ages.
• Imprisonment
• Developed around the seventeenth century.

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Penal Administration in the Early Middle Ages

• The social system of the time was characterized
  by
• Tradition
• Well-balanced system of social dependence
• Religious acknowledgement of the established
  order of things.
• Penance was primarily used to mitigate vengeance
  between the injured parties.
• Fear of private vengeance was the biggest
  deterrent of crime.

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Early Middle Ages (cont.)

• Criminal law was imposed by a system of fines
• The amount of penance differed by social class
• The more this system developed the more that
  fines became a punishment only for the upper
  classes.
• Corporal punishment began to be used in lieu of
  fines for the lower class.

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Public Punishment

• Early medieval law was private however, it soon
  developed into a public enterprise. Why?
• Increase in the disciplinary function of the
  feudal lords.
• Struggle of the central authorities to strengthen
  their influence.
• Fiscal interest
• Administration of justice became very lucrative.
• Instrument of Domination

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Criminal Law and the Rise of Capitalism

• The urban population had become very poor.
• Proletariat bourgeoisie surplus population.
• The bifurcated system of fines and corporal
  punishment remained in this era, but the
  variations in treatment between the two
  categories of people became more pronounced.
• Private arbitration was no longer a primary
  method of dispute resolution.
• The poorer the masses became the more harsh and
  physical the punishment became.

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Forms of Corporal Punishment

• Death Penalty
• The death penalty was originally used only in
  extreme cases however, after the 15th Century it
  was used extensively.
• Mutilation
• Mutilation served to identify criminals and to
  force them further down in class.
• Exile
• Offenders were banished from the community often
  only to be punished severely in another
  community.

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Corporal Punishment and Human Labor

• At this time there was little shortage of labor
  and an ever-growing lower class.
• This excess of labor reduced the price paid for
  labor.
• As the price for labor decreased, so did the
  value of human life.
• Cruelty itself is a social phenomenon which can
  be understood only in terms of the social
  relationships prevailing at any given period.
  (21)

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Mercantilism and the Rise of Imprisonment

• During the beginning of the 17th Century the
  population of wealth persons in urban areas began
  to increase.
• This growth in population increased the demand
  for certain goods.
• The growth in consumer demand also increased the
  need for human capital.
• Human capital at the time was very scarce. The
  workers began to gain power to control the labor
  force.
• The upper classes appealed to the state for
  working capital and for the restriction of wages.

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The Evolution of the Prison System

• Until the 17th century prisons were primarily
  used as pre-trial detention.
• With the need for labor increasing, the modern
  prison became a method of exploiting labor and
  for training new labor reserves.
• The prison developed largely as a profit motive.
• Making the system pay.
• The new penal system developed as an integral
  part of the mercantilist system.